Memo: No bias in BIA recognition decision

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Thursday, September 9, 2004

In an Aug. 31 letter to members of Congress, who demanded the investigation last April, Inspector GeneralEarl E. Devaney said that while the Schaghticoke decision was "highly controversial," BIA officials and staff did not bend the rules or succumb to lobbying pressures to grant the recognition.

Attorney General Blumenthal slammed the review as a superficial "whitewash," and said he will continue to fight the Schaghticoke decision through the appeals process.

The inspector general's ruling leaves open whether the BIA ruling was justified or if the tribe met all the required criteria for federal acknowledgment. Those issues, he said, are properly being argued before the Interior Board of Indian Appeals.

Interior spokesman Dan DuBray said the memo's conclusion should dispel concerns about bias in the agency.

"While we are not surprised by the findings of the inspector general, this independent confirmation of the integrity of our process is very welcome," Mr. DuBray said.

Schaghticoke Chief Richard Velky said the Kent-based tribe hopes "the strength and clarity of this decision, which rejected all implications of bias or improper influence, will temper those who have attempted to use politics and the media to undermine this comprehensive and fair determination."

Connecticut lawmakers were irate over the BIA's recognition decision, which reversed a preliminary ruling against the tribe. The BIA in January granted the tribe recognition, despite acknowledging that the group failed to show continuous political activity from 1820 to 1840, and from 1892 to 1936.

Charges of corruption arose after members of Congress saw a BIA staff memo that detailed how the agency could excuse the time gaps by giving more weight to the tribe's state recognition. The inspector general reviewed the memo and said it was properly discussed by the BIA as part of the process.

Attorney General Blumenthal reacted strongly to the memo.

"The inspector general's outrageous conclusion that this action was just part of the recognition process shows once again that the BIA is lawless, out of control, and the process is irrevocably broken," he said in a statement released last week.

"If the BIA can arbitrarily abrogate any rule at any time - as the inspector general suggests it can - then the recognition procedure is a legal mockery," the attorney general concluded.

Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell sent a letter Aug. 31 to members of the state's congressional delegation, saying she was dismayed about a conclusion reached on the basis that the BIA's regulations are "permissive and inherently flexible."

"The tribal recognition process must be rigid and strict, thereby ensuring that only those groups who can legitimately and conclusively prove native American ancestry can avail themselves of the benefits that federal law provides to native American tribes," Gov. Rell said.